I told you last week about the implications of Xander Bogaerts’s Triple-A promotion. This week, we celebrate another Triple-A promotion, as the Mariners have bumped Taijuan Walker from Double-A Jackson to Tacoma. Walker has everything you look for in a pitching prospect — size, stuff, athleticism… the works. He’s as elite as they come. After an up-and-down 2012 at Jackson, the 20-year-old returned to Double-A in 2013, performing with much greater consistency this time through. Walker cranked it up a notch in June, though, posting a 33/3 K/BB in 25 IP this month. He’s only 20, and it’s probably a little premature to wonder about a 2013 arrival considering the M’s have arms like Erasmo Ramirez and Danny Hultzen waiting for an opportunity, but Walker’s ceiling is the best of the bunch. By far. And now that he’s just one stop from the bigs, he needs to be on your fantasy radar.

Julio Urias | LHP, Dodgers — At age 16, Julio Urias is playing full-season baseball, which is absurd. What’s more absurd, is that through five starts at Low-A Great Lakes, Urias has posted a 3.12 ERA and a K/9 at 9.9. His long-term upside is tough to gauge at this point — he lacks a projectable frame (5-11, 160), but he has the makings of three plus pitches in his arsenal. It’s also been reported that the Dodgers will demote him to a short-season assignment, now that those leagues are up and running. In any case, what Urias has accomplished to this point at age 16 is unreal.

Rafael De Paula | RHP, Yankees — Age 16 and performing well at a Low-A assignment: Extremely impressive (see Urias). Age 22 and performing well at a Low-A assignment: Far less impressive. The Yankees have moved De Paula up to High-A after the 22-year-old tormented the South Atlantic League hitters for 13 starts. It’ll be interesting to see if his success continues as he climbs the ladder.

Chris Owings | SS, D’Backs — Owings is on fire at Triple-A Reno, batting .467 through his last 10 and .360 on the season. He’s more of a real-life prospect than a fantasy prospect, but he has plus hitting ability and should be able to post an average north of .300 in the bigs. That’ll be enough to make him relevant in the fantasy game.

Gary Brown | OF, Giants —Angel Pagan appears likely to miss a significant chunk of time, leaving a vacancy in the San Francisco outfield. Meanwhile, Gary Brown has been on fire at Triple-A Fresno over the past couple weeks. Batting .350/.395/.725 with 4 homers through his last 10 games, Brown is looking more and more like a serious option to take over center field duties in San Francisco.

Miguel Sano | OF, Twins — After going 1-for-17 through his first 7 games at Double-A, Sano has now homered in two of his last three games. As we know, the 20-year-old can launch baseballs over the wall in bunches, and it appears he’s finally getting comfortable at New Britain.

Mike Olt | 1B/3B, Rangers — Speaking of guys who can tally up the homers in a hurry, Mike Olt keeps ripping long balls at Triple-A Round Rock. He hit two more since I slotted him at #10 in Wednesday’s prospect power rankings. Olt is now slugging .699 at Triple-A, after a brutal first few weeks to the season.

Ryan Rua | 2B, Rangers — The Rangers system has quite a bit of power, by the way. The right side of the infield at Low-A Hickory, alone, has combined for 45 homers this year. First baseman, Joey Gallo has 22 of them. Second baseman, Ryan Rua has 23, which leads Minor League Baseball, at the moment.

Jonathan Singleton | 1B, Astros — Singleton has finally arrived at Triple-A — where he would’ve started this season at, if it weren’t for the pesky 50-game suspension. It only took 17 games between Low-A and Double-A for the Astros to bump him to Triple-A Oklahoma city.

Maikel Franco | 3B, Phillies — I wrote about Franco last week, saying he’d reach the upper levels soon. The Phillies must’ve read that post, because they promoted him to Double-A just a few days ago. The 20-year-old has already homered once through two games at Reading.

Noah Syndergaard | RHP, Mets — Also getting a bump to Double-A is Noah Syndergaard. The 20-year-old is oozing with front-of-the-rotation potential, and he’d been performing very well at High-A, posting a 3.11 ERA while whiffing a batter per-inning in 12 starts at St. Lucie. Syndergaard, if you recall, was a key piece in the R.A. Dickey trade with Toronto.

@That’s What She Said: Not a chance. Moving from A ball a few weeks ago to the majors in the course of a few months would be foolish and unprecedented, especially by the Twins standard. They are well known for taking their time bringing prospects through the minors. Plus, he’s definitely not ready. It’s a small sample size for sure but he’s off to a very slow start in AA. It’s a new level of pitching he’s now facing and it will be even harder in AAA. He strikes out a lot and advanced pitchers will exploit the holes in his swing until he develops further. And finally, what would be the point of rushing a top prospect to the majors and starting his service time clock in a meaningless season? Best case scenario, I see him as a June call up in 2014 but more likely a September call up next year.

@Scott Evans: @That’s What She Said: @Scott was wondering your thoughts on the futures of Astros prospects Singleton, Springer, Deshields Jr. whom I own ?…………………….Also I have made two trades this season so far and im in a 14 team 40 man roster/40 keeper league…………..Traded Vernon wells and Juan Pierre for Jose Fernandez early on after he struggled against Tampa only going 3 innings and trade 2 was Nick Swisher straight up for Miguel Sano (who im hoping is at least the next Giancarlo although I wouldn’t complain if he became Miggy like)

@Matt C: Wow… those are two pretty amazing trades for you. Kudos on that… not sure why the other trades were made, especially the Vernon Wells/Pierre one..

Singleton is the best 1B prospect in the minors, Springer has all the tools if he can just put them together (especially the “hit” tool), and I’ve always liked Deshields but I don’t think he projects too much for fantasy purposes (thought about getting him in a keeper trade earlier this year, backed off).

@Matt C: Nice work on the trades. But you are hoping that Sano is AT LEAST as good as Stanton, one of the best pure power hitters in the game? You are getting a little greedy because you should be ecstatic if he’s even in the same range as Stanton. He does have ridiculous power potential but he’s striking out an awful lot even in the lower minors. It’s very possible he develops better discipline but you might want to hold off on the Cabrera comparisons.

1. Almonte is intriguing… always been a toolsy guy, but hit too in particular has taken a step forward this year. Could be a viable option in AL Only… pretty fringy guy for mixed, but still keep an eye on him…

Around 100 minor leaguers are rostered across the league, and we can’t touch guys drafted this year until the draft.

Would you drop any of those guys for Rua, Franco or any other under-the-radar guys you’re keen on? I jumped on Goldschmidt early using Razzball and haven’t looked anywhere else for info since, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

1Just read Joe Kelly will take Lyons spot in STL rotation…
2 I also read on some Cards blog that Wacha is not coming back to the majors this year… That 3 CMart is more ready in their view…Wacha needs more seasoning(ie develop a curve ball).
3…the cards want to watch Shelby’s innings…

Here is how I think it will play out…

It appears Joe K would pitch @ OAK then @ LAA…he will likely get rocked and moved back to mid relief.

That leaves Chris Carpenter, Gast, CMart,…

Seems like Carpenter is coming along pretty slow….but he will get first crack at starting job bc he is a veteran… He is throwing again so it could be about a month when he returns. Although he could easily have another setback by simply walking down the street….

Gast is also about a month away…I don’t think he factors in unless more major injuries occur to the staff.

CMart will have 2 more minor league starts to stretch out more and get control issues worked out…he sucked in his last outing with walks…. Can’t have that in MLB or your looking at 3.2IP 5ER outings…even against the Asstros…

IMO CMart should assume SP duties in about 2 weeks just when schedule gets favorable…and then have 3 starts or so before he has to worry about carpenter….of course, someone else could get injured by that time or Carp has a setback… CMart is not the next Shelby, but could give you similar production with less Ks… Mid to back end SP in my 12 team league… Trying to decide whether to stash him now…

He was #5 on my stash list last Wednesday… could rank higher if he’s indeed just two weeks away… In any case, this is well thought-out & a valuable synopsis to read for anyone on here wondering about the Cardinals rotaish.

I just pulled off a pretty big trade in a 12 team keeper ops league:
Get Stanton, Ells, Dunn
Give: cargo, billy butler, bundy

The other owner wanted Myers in place of bundy and I was able to pick up walker after his promotion to “fill” bundys slot. Overall I feel good about it as I needed speed this season and like Stanton better as a keeper. Thoughts? I usually find ways to mess trades up!

12 team keeper league…I’m currently in first place and trying to put myself over the top.
Should I trade Goldschmidt for prince, Aaron Hill, and Bourjos? I could also replace Bourjos with Parra if I want

Toolsy guy who never really produced, but he’s made some adjustments this season and now he’s pounding the ball at AA. I can see him helping out the Mets this year, but he seems more like a 2014 guy… also keep in mind that he’s wrapped up in the biogenesis scandal, so lengthy suspension is likely…

And gotta ask you about Buxton. Don’t own this guy but am hearing incredibly rave reviews about this guy, saying his talent level is through the roof, and that his potential is monstrous, Mike Trout with more power levels?

Do you see that with him aswell? Could he be your no1 overall prospect entering next year? Funny thing was I drafted Correa over Bux in my draft (your advice man ;) ) , but I ended up trading him for Profar (who ive now traded also) anyway.

Olt worth stashing or is it hard to tell when/if the Rangers call him up? Moreland has been solid at 1B. Profar is getting a try in the OF…The rangers have too many prospects. They just need to package them in a deal for Giancarlo already, so Giancarlo can be hitting moonshots in Arlington and helping my team move up to first!

I read the other day that some sources “well connected” with Marlins upper management don’t think Giancarlo will get traded. Say it ain’t so….

keep league format, have a trade offer. He is giving me bryce harper for manny machado, and I have nick franklin sitting on the bench. Do i pull the trigger, with power being more of a factor in our legue?

With all the hype that Harper and Trout got last year, is anyone really noticing how unbelievable Manny Machado has been as a 20 year old this year?

He leads the majors with 34 doubles, the next closest guy has 25. That puts Machado on a pace for 72 doubles I believe, which would be 18 more than the top season ever by a 20 year old (ARod), and 5 more than Earl Webb’s single season record of 67 set in 1931. He’s also second in the league in hits with 106.

He obviously isn’t showing the power yet, just 5 homers, but very soon some of those doubles will turn to home runs. He’s got some speed too with 6 steals so far. The kids hitting over .320 as a 20 year old too.

Oh, and for real baseball he’s also 2nd in defensive WAR and 3rd in WAR. Which translates to fantasy in the fact that the O’s could move him back to SS if they choose.

As the proud owner in a keeper with a very, very good price tag, whats the ceiling look like in a couple years when the kid is 23 or 24 years old Scott?

I’ve been saying that Machado might just be the best young star in the game — and that includes Mike Trout. He’s amazing, and he likely moves back to short next year, which would only serve to elevate his fantasy impact. Ceiling is sky high… top-of-the-league potential.

In a redraft AL-Only league, which of these are the most legit options for stashing for impact this year – especially sooner than later: Singleton, Springer, Taijuan Walker, Bogaerts, Brad Miller, Jonathan Villar, Rondon, Erik Johnson, Sonny Gray

@Scott Evans: Cool! Gotta grab him over Barnes then? I’ve already dropped Fried for Brown, these 2 guys have gotta be upgrades over the other two.

Stephenson is downright nasty, another future ace for the Reds. Wouldn’t worry about pitching in that park either, pitchers this good adapt. Look at what Cueto and Latos have done (and even Bailey is starting too). Groundball, strikeout machines can pitch anywhere.

agreed; thanks for response. heard gausman called back up today and will pitch outta pen. probably not a bad place for him in the short-term. they could really use some late inning RHP help (not that he will get that role yet) given the struggles of Pedro and O’Day has seemed very hittable last week or so.

What sort of projections do you see for Villar in 2014? Is he similar to Andrus? More power, equal speed, lower average? Strictly from an offensive standpoint. I know his defense is a liability at this point.

Also I saw you think it’s likely Machado moves back to SS next season. What are you basing that on? What about Hardy?

Don’t like Bradley for fantasy… never did. Doubt he’ll be of much use outside of AL Only or very deep formats. Springer will be good, though — probably poor AVG at first, but 20/20 potential over a full season isn’t out of the question.

@Scott: I was wondering about that too. I’ve been trying to aquire Bogaerts in a trade and his owner has Springer as well. I have Longoria and he is definitely interested in him but I feel like Longoria is too much to give up for those 2. It’s an AL only keeper league by the way. What do you think?

@Scott Evans: Thats what I’m thinking. I like their upside but I just can’t trade a elite producer for 2 unproven prospects. I know what Bogaerts potential ceiling is but what do you think he does in his first few years?

@Scott Evans: I will see if he goes for it. Your columns are my favorite on this site because you have as good of a pulse on prospects as any writer I’ve found. Many sites do rankings but I enjoy your analysis especially. It’s vital in a keeper league.

now that puig’s up, myers is up…is their anyone on the verge of a call up to the bigs that has a legit chance at 10-15 homers in the second half, or will we have to wait until next season for the next big thing?

What sort of player do you see Franklin becoming over the next few years? He’s off to a crazy good start with 4 HR and 4 SB in less than a month but I don’t know that he can keep up the pace, especially the homers.

@Scott Evans: I agree. I’m thinking about putting him in a package for Kipnis who only has a few years left under the league contract. Do you like Brad Miller or Villar more for 2014? Both are available